Jay Swingler, a 22-year-old YouTuber based in UK, got his head stuck in microwave oven filled with plaster while filming his Christmas video series. [Courtesy of the West Midlands Fire Service / Facebook]
There are many social media pranksters and YouTubers who post their goofy jokes and pranks that range from mildly funny to serious. Because the prank videos have a tendency to garner more views than the other life and style videos, that many social media personalities turn to creating prank videos in order to generate more views and reactions from their viewers.
A 22 years old UK-based Youtuber, Jay Swingler, thought it would be funny trying to make a mold of his head using microwave and Polyfilla for his Christmas video series. He and his three friends had been producing videos and uploaded on TGFBro channel. He and his friends started filming the process and laughing throughout, thinking it would make one hell of a video and gain a lot of viewers. The YouTuber wrapped his head with a plastic bag and put his head into the plaster filled microwave oven, however, they did not take into their accounts of rapid setting time of the Polyfilla they were using.
Swingler's friends started to get concerned when he started having a hard time breathing through a plastic tube he was using for air. His friends began their efforts to free the prankster in vain for an hour and a half. Exhausted of all endeavors, the crew called for the emergency responders. The West Midlands Fire Service arrived immediately and successfully freed Swingler after an hour of taking the oven apart and breaking plaster apart. "He was very relieved when we removed a large chunk of the Polyfilla with a screwdriver, allowing him to breath more easily. But we had to be extremely careful with the screwdriver, working so closely to his head", Watch Commander Shaun Dakin, the officer in charge of the West Midlands Fire Service explained.
Dakin recounted the incident happened Thursday on its website, "As funny as it sounds, this young man could quite easily have suffocated or have been seriously injured", emphasizing how dangerous the situation was. Swingler also posted two videos after the incident showing the recordings of how his head got stuck and emergency responders saved him, and his personal response to the social media reactions and the event.
Swingler said in his "My Response" video that he has been getting a lot of aggressive and degrading comments about him and his actions. He expressed that if he was not the person who he is, it would have been really hard to face the social media attack and having international news media exposure. The YouTuber said at the end of the day he felt like his stunt was a success for how much of media attention it garnered.
The recording of the incident got over 2.8 million views and his reflection video had over 1.1 million views as of Saturday. His YouTube channel, TGFBro, currently has over 3 million followers.
Dakin said of the event, "all of the group was very apologetic, but this was clearly a call-out which might have prevented us from helping someone else in genuine, accidental need."
Swingler tweeted after he was freed, "I've just had a near death experience. Very lucky to be alive. I'm traumatised." Many Twitter users who learned what happened through the news expressed their concern, however, there were quite a number of people attacking the YouTuber for his dangerous pranks and wasting the emergency responders' time when it could be used to save more lives.
Kwak, Min Jung = abiel@ajunews.com
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